Agent for exterminating animal or vegetable pests



Patented Feb. 21, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE KARL ILABX AND KARL BRODERSEN, OF DES SA'U IN ANHAIII', GERMANY, ASSIGNORS TO WINTHROI CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC 015 NEW YORK N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK AGENT FOR EXTMINATTNG ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE PESTS No Drawing. Application filed December 21, 1928, Serial No. 327,741, and in Germany February 24, 1927.

The present invention relates to an agent for exterminating animal or vegetable pests.

The new agent has very good properties and is active at low concentration without injurin plants. It may be made by sulfonating rown coal tar oil alone or mixed with a cyclic organic compound comprising an aromatic or hydroaromatic h drocarbon or a substitution roduct thereo such as a phenol or a nap thol. The new agent is efiective not only against vegetable pests but against vermin in animals and human beings. Even the s ecies of lice which are known to be kille only with diificulty can be exterminated in a very short time by this agent.

The products of sulfonation may be marketed either in solid form or in concentrated aqueous solutions preferably of a salt, for instance the sodium salt.

It is best to use the sodium salt in a concentration of 0.5 per cent. or less however, stronger solutions can be used without damage elther to animals or to plants. The activity remains even after addition of acid or alkaline material.

The brown coal tar oils serving as a starting material in preparing our agents for exterminating pests, are marketed under different trade-marks. They consist mainly of colorless to darkly colored saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons having a specific gravity of 0.825 to 0.930 and boiling at a temperature between 130 C. to above 300 C.

of. Ullman, Encyclopaedie der technischen hemie, 1st edition, vol. 3, pages 23 to 24; Ost, Lehrbuch der chemischen Technologie, 15th edition (1926) page 417.)

For example, a mixture of 1,000 parts of commercial Solar oil from brown coal tar (a fraction of brown coal tar mainly consisting of saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons having a specific ravity of 0.825 to 0.835 and a boiling point between lac-240 0.) and 500 parts of xylene are treated at 1020 C. first with 1,000 parts of sulphuric'acid of 100 per cent. strength, and then with 1500 parts of fuming sulphuric acid containing er cent of S0,. The sulfonation product t us obtained is separated from the unconsumed sulphuric acid and from the unchanged oil and is worked up in known manner to produce the sodium salt. For killing lice, a solution of 1 per cent strength of this salt may be used; for wood lice, a solution of 0.3 to 0.5 per cent. strength is generally sufiicient. Damage to delicate plants first occurs when the concentration is between 2 and 3 per cent.

We claim 1. An insecticide consisting essentially of a water-soluble sulfonation product of a hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar oil.

2. An insecticide consisting essentially of a water-soluble sulfonation product of a mixture of a hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar oil with a compound of the grou consisting of aromatic hydrocarbons, p enols and naphthols.

3. An insecticide consisting essentially of a water-soluble sulfonation product of a mixture of a hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar oil with xylene.

4. An insecticide consisting essentially of water-soluble salt of a sulfonation product gila hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar 01 5. An insecticide consisting'essentially of a water-soluble salt of a sulfonation product of amixture of a hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar oil with a compound of the group consisting of aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols and naphthols.

6. An insecticide consisting essentially of a water-soluble salt of a sulfonation product of a mixture of a hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar oil with xylene.

7. An insecticide consisting essentially of the sodium salt of the sulfonation product of a mixture consisting of xylene and of a hydrocarbon fraction of brown coal tar oil of specific gravit 0.825 to 0.835 and boiling between 130 to 240 C.

In testimony whereof, we aflix our signatures.

KARL MARX.

KARL BRODERSEN. 

